The big news this week is the LGBT community’s reaction to President Obama’s grant of limited benefits to partners of federal employees. Here’s my take on it. The Washington Blade has more analysis. The news comes on the heels of Obama’s decision to defend a Department of Justice filing that supports DOMA. On that case, […]
What a day. My son is out of school for the summer, so I spent most of my time at the playground with him and a friend, watching them go up and down on the swings. Recent national LGBT political news has been rather like that, too. It has gone something like this: President Obama
From the official White House Flickr site, via teacherken at DailyKos, who draws our attention to the caption: President Barack Obama bends over so the son of a White House staff member can pat his head during a family visit to the Oval Office May 8, 2009. The youngster wanted to see if the President’s
Jenny Durkan, a longtime counselor to Washington Gov. Chris Gregoire, is one of President Obama’s first six picks for U.S. attorneys. She is also a lesbian mom, and lives in Seattle with her partner and two sons. True, there are no out lesbians on Obama’s U.S. Supreme Court shortlist, and one might wonder if Durkan’s
I wrote this back in November for 365gay.com, but never crossposted. A recent article in the Bangor Daily News, by Diane Schetky, clinical professor of psychiatry at the Maine Medical Center, reminded me about it. Schetky makes the same point that I did, which is that children are not necessarily harmed by growing up without
Dear President Obama: In less than a week, the White House lawn will be swarming with children and their parents, gleeful participants in the White House Easter Egg Roll. Children of LGBT parents will be among them, as they have been for many years. Some of the children in attendance may be LGBT themselves, whether
The United States signed on with a number of other Western countries to a U.N. proposal that would condemn discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. The measure failed because many countries in Africa and the Middle East, as well as China opposed the proposal. President Obama appointed campaign fundraiser Jeremy Bernard, who is
President Obama has appointed Alison J. Nathan, who is openly lesbian, as his associate counsel. Nathan was recently the Fritz Alexander Fellow at New York University School of Law and a visiting assistant professor at Fordham Law School. During the 2008 Presidential campaign, Nathan was the national voter protection senior advisor to the Obama campaign
Some new guy moved into this house on Pennsylvania Avenue. . . . Says he wants to improve LGBT rights, education, healthcare, women’s rights, and strengthen families, not to mention fix the economy, protect the environment, and end the war in Iraq, among other things. Hope he still has time to read his girls a
Today marks the 36th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, which also makes it the annual Blog for Choice day. The organizers have asked us to answer the question, “What is your top pro-choice hope for President Obama and/or the new Congress?” For me, it is three things: Standing firm against the forces who would limit
